“If you have to throw weight, you have to throw weight. This is capitalism, and these are laissez faire policies,” Hensal told the 150 people gathered Tuesday night in Northwood High School’s cafeteria-turned-debate hall before imploring them to support corporations’ rights to spend as much money as they please to affect elections.

The exchange between Van Hollen and Hensal had the audience laughing, clapping, and, occasionally, booing and hissing.

And Tuesday’s debate provided comic punctuation to Murray Hill’s satirical campaign against Van Hollen in his bid to continue representing Maryland’s 8th Congressional District — a campaign intended to mock the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision that equates corporations to human beings when it comes to some forms of political speech.

“If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear,” argued Van Hollen in favor of disclosure in political ads run by companies.

“If you see an ad with a particular message and it says that it is from the Coalition for a Cleaner Ocean, and it is funded by BP, you might look at that ad in a different way,” Van Hollen quipped, followed by cheers and laughter from the audience.

“The Federalist Papers were anonymous, the foundation of our country was based on anonymous samples circulated by someone called Publius,” Hensal pointed out — a response that even Van Hollen couldn’t help but laugh at.

“I think the Supreme Court thinks that we are all adults and can think for ourselves,” Hensal argues. “The notion that you will be dominated by the airwaves treats you like you are some sort of automata who responds without thinking to stimuli.”Van Hollen is a sponsor of the House version of the DISCLOSE Act, a bill created in response to Citizens United. The legislation, among other things, requires disclosure of top bankrollers of political ads run by corporations, labor unions, 527 groups and trade associations. The bill requires the names of the top five donors whose contributions made the campaign commercial possible to appear in the advertisement itself. It also requires the heads of corporations to appear in the ads they sponsor to personally approve the message.

The DISCLOSE Act passed the House in a 219-206 vote — a vote along party lines, with just two Republicans voting in favor of the bill.

Tuesday’s debate, conducted by Maryland’s chapter of Organizing for America — an extension of President Barack Obama’s campaign organization, now under the auspices of the Democratic National Committee — and Maryland’s Young Democrats, contained a lot of Republican-bashing as well.

In his opening statement, Van Hollen touted the Democratic Party line, highlighting the Democratic Party’s achievement of passing comprehensive health care reform and Wall Street reform. He also couldn’t resist reminding the audience of Rep. Joe Barton‘s apology and connecting it to the Republican Party.

“Barton apologizing to BP is their energy policy,” Van Hollen said.

When Jake Weissman, the event’s host and president of Maryland’s Young Democrats, suggested that Murray Hill Inc. would champion the causes of the Republican Party if elected, Hensal retorted, “When corporations are running things directly — who needs a party?”

Murray Hill Inc. might need a party for a few more years, at least. The Maryland Board of Elections barred Murray Hill from the ballot, informing the corporation that, at age 5, it is not old enough to run. Citing Article 1, Clause 2 of the Constitution, the board clarified that a candidate for Congress must be at least 25.

In an interview with OpenSecrets Blog after the event, Hensal said that they were going to continue protesting the decision because “the Constitution says 25 years old, but it does not specify how to calculate age. Corporations are not any older than the day they were incorporated; it’s not like a corporation turns 21 and buys a beer.”

Until Murray Hill Inc. can convince the Maryland Board of Elections that dog years apply to corporations, Van Hollen does not have to worry much about Murray Hill Inc. as he campaigns to keep his relatively safe seat in the 8th District.

It is the other chamber — the U.S. Senate — that is struggling to pass the DISCLOSE Act.

Although Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) promised to get the DISCLOSE Act passed by the August recess, a united Republican opposition and an NRA exemption from the bill has some Democrats wary. And Reid and Schumer are short on votes to get the bill passed.

“Harry Reid said it will go up to vote,” Van Hollen assured the cheering audience.

At the end of the debate, both Van Hollen and Hansel agreed that all politics are local by suggesting that citizens can do something.

“We need people to focus on this effort and call up three senators — Sen. [Olympia] Snow, Sen. [Susan] Collins, and Sen. [Scott] Brown, and tell them that they, as voters, have a right to know who is spending all this money on campaign ads,” Van Hollen told Open Secrets Blog.

In his closing statement, Murray Hill told the audience that the political system, like a carnival game, “is rigged,” and if “you can’t come around the corner and challenge the game then you are just going to have to accept the fact, as fact, that corporations are people, too.”

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